Ok, to keep my emails structured and concise I’m going to continue my heading idea but make some running headings that I’ll reuse every week. Thanks, I think it’s a good idea too.

SENIOR MOMENT
This one isn’t funny. It’s touching. We served with Sis. Thayer at the Brigham Young home and it was crazy busy. We’d all three be taking different groups through at once for most of the time (very unusual). But the coolest was that it was quiet once for like an hour straight and it happened to be when Sis. Thayer told us all about coming back to the church in her twenties from alcoholism and a series of bad choices and about her husband’s death and his process of learning about the church just before he died. You’d never guess all the things these senior missionaries have gone through. They all have crazy cool stories and years of valuable experiences. I can learn SO MUCH from these surrogate grandparents. They’re so dedicated to the work, their marriages, and to constantly studying the scriptures and learning more every day.

COMPANION MOMENT
Today we went on a bike ride through Nauvoo in the rain. It was beautiful and rad. Sis F and I were arguing about how we were getting black dots of grime on our faces throughout the ride and about whose face had the most crude on it. Funny. And we discussed briefly the significant frozen yogurt places in Provo and Santee/La Mesa.  Told you we have a lot in common! I love the rain. The storms here are crazy and come all of the sudden and then stop all of the sudden and all the while it’s still warm. I love it!

FROM THE MOUTH OF BABES
So in the BY home this little 9 yr-old girl came in by herself so Sis F and I were chatting with her. We asked her name and she said Andrea. So we freaked out and took a pic of the 3 Andreas. Good times. Then later she came back with 3 cousins and asked us out first names in front of the cousins. We said we were both Andrea and she turned to her cousin and said, “See?! You owe me $3.” Hilarious! So Sis F bribed them with candy if no one had to pay anyone $. Awesome! And on Andrea’s private tour we gave her before that Sis F asked her why we needed prophets today and she confidently replied “cause, if we didn’t have prophets everyone would be pretty much hooligans.” So wise. Love it!

MIDWEST MOMENT
Last week we were crossing the street in “downtown” Nauvoo on our way to the fudge shoppe from an old-school bookstore (ok, probably really normal-school for out here, just feels old-school) and the sheriff drives by and waved to us out the window and we smiled and waved back cause we’re tight with him and for a split second I really wondered if we were on some kind of weird TV show from the 1950s. I LOVE IT. And we had some locals come in named Billy, Paul (thought it was “Paw” until he spelled it for me) and Butch.

NAUVOO THE BEAUTIFUL: LIGHTENING AND LIGHTENING BUGS
On the way home from Carthage there was a crazy lightening storm and we were driving through nothing but cornfields and it was pitch black. So then picture this. Like a MILLION fireflies among the cornfields so it looked like twinkling Christmas lights and crazy lightening close and far and all across the sky. So many chances out here to appreciate the beauty of the earth and remember that it’s not an accident.

THE HIGH POINT
Couldn’t decide if this should be my high point or my low point…The other day I was speaking to a kid (maybe 11 yrs) in the VC and I gave him a challenge to write in his journal the things he’s experienced in Nauvoo (ya know, cause it’s a spiritual place and all…) and so I told him he should write it down so he can remember it later. And he assured me, with a completely straight face, that he didn’t need to because he has a chamber in his brain that he keeps all that kind of stuff in. So…how to argue with that. Like a journal is better than a chamber. I was stuck. But he did say that sometimes he has to empty stuff out of the chamber to fit more in, so eventually we agreed that writing it down might still be worthwhile. I love it! I love talking with kids out here and I love that the gospel applies to all and that they can all feel something special as they come here.

THE LOW POINT
We went on exchanges and I went down to Carthage for the day which was way cool. But apparently I forgot how to sleep over places and since I don’t have my own car to live out of anymore, I found myself terribly unprepared. I had no clothes to work out in but we wanted to go outside so we took bikes and I wore my PJ shorts and shirt and then stole some thick white socks and stuffed my feet into my church shoes. Ha ha! It was beautiful. Don’t worry, we documented it.

WHAT’S REALLY THE POINT
This mission is amazing. I was able to talk with a couple of boys the other day who’s families are members of the church but they’ve decided to stop going. They’re 19 and 20. One was telling me how dumb he thinks the historical sites are because there’s really no spiritual growth to be had here and that there’s nothing you can’t learn from reading (which is faster and cheaper). He was telling me how he hasn’t felt anything the whole time he’s been here. Both of them have either never read or never prayed about the Book of Mormon. I was able to share my feelings with them and my testimony with them. I can’t really explain it but it was so powerful to try to express to them how much there is out there and how important it is that they find out for themselves that they’re doing the right thing. I know Heavenly Father has a lot of blessing in store for them and the sooner they’re able to realize that and accept His will above their own, the better. Each of us do miraculous things every day and the more we turn out lives over to the Lord, the more He will magnify those things and the talents He has given us. The more we apply the atonement to our lives the more we can be strengthened and become better. I’m grateful for the chance to strive to do this every day. I have a LOT of improving to do but I know with the Lord on my side I can. I’m so grateful for this knowledge and I love the gospel and its truths with all my heart.

Thank you all SO much for you love, emails, letters, prayers, and support.Sis C

man oh man....those were some good emails from everyone. so much has been through my mind in the last WEEK AND A HALF (i like to pity myself big time for going so long without a prep-day) and i hope i can remember even a fraction of it.

VC IS COOL

first of all, i'm still loving life. big time. yes, of course there are still moments where i feel like there's way too much to learn and not enough time to study it all, but this place is awesome. you talk to people constantly all day (luckily, i've been training my whole life for that...) and it's rad to meet people from everywhere and to share your testimony like 100x/day. it's amazing how much love you have for these people you've known for only a few minutes.

SPIRITUAL RAMPAGE...GOTTA LOVE IT :)

there are a lot more people who come here who are not LDS than i thought. not always sure how they find their way to nauvoo. some on a harley, some in canoes. that's not a joke. but we've had some really cool experiences with visitors where we just got to sit and talk and talk and they'd ask me tons of questions and i'd get to answer them the best i could. i LOVE seeing lightbulbs go on and sharing a part of the gospel with someone and hearing them say that it makes a lot of sense. cause it's true and it does. the mid-westerns have a lot of faith in general so it's so cool to build on that and to see their questions answered with the teachings in the Book of Mormon and through the restored gospel. awesome! i'm so tempted to type out a whole explaination of what i mean by "restored gospel" and all of the aspects of the church i want to share with all of you who don't know, but instead i just encourage you to meet with the missionaries. seriously. there is so much peace and somany answers this gospel brings and i know that if you listen with an open mind and a prayer in your heart that you will get a greater understanding of God's love for you and His plan for you than you have ever had. because He DOES love you because He made you and He has a wonderful plan for you. so just take me up on the offer and get in contact with missionaries or when you see them, let them in. pretend it's me cause in a few months it will be. :)

WHERE AM I GOING AND WHEN

as far as getting transferred for the winter, i probably will but just this winter. then i stay til i leave next year. we don't find out where til right before. but as usual, i try not to get too set on what i think the plans are. i'm mostly just speaking engl here. i don't sign unless we have deaf visitors which has been few and far between. like 2.5 so far. but we're getting ready for the pageant cause we'll be interpretting there every night. wahoo!

COMP

sis faulkner is still amazing. every day we figure out more freakish similarities (yes, it runs much deeper than the same first name and living in the same stake twice...) it's so fun to be with someone who's so on the same page adn she's an amazing example of obedience and hard work. she's never not working and i love it! we were laughing so hard last night cause we were thinking about how we always tell each other that we think the other person is so cool/funny/fun in the same sentence as "we're so much alike..." weird, i know. :)

PREP-DAY PLANS

today we're gonna write some letters and stuff and hopefully i'll be able to start getting back to ppl. sorry for all of the unanswered Qs and un-thanked-for packages but know that i've thanked you lots in the my heart so far. :) i need to get a hair cut real bad. it's turned into fluffly straw. but i'm still so terrified of what a mid-western may interpret any of my instruction as. a sister here went to get hers cut once and he gave her wings and long, flowy curls. and i'm pretty sure none of that was in her request for a trim. but hey, this is probably the one time in my life when an awesomely bad haircut wouldn't cramp my social life. :)

WHAT YOU'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR...

the heat and humidity are getting a little worse. feeling more and more like walking around inside a giant mouth. but it's not too bad still. but it's a little worse when wearing my PIONEER DRESS!!! that's right! i got it. it's green gingham and let me tell you...i'm a looker! i've only gotten to wear it once but i was lovin it.

AMBIANCE

the sunsets here are the raddest, btw. hence the photos. it sets over the mississippi which is trippy cause it's water but not an ocean. the other day sis F and i walked home from the river on the streets of nauvoo and it was so amazing and goreous and calm. (they say there's basically never crime here...) and we saw TONS of fireflies. woohoo! everytime i see them i think of april fisher and her love for the nauvoo fireflies. of course, now i'm also gonna think of how amanda told me a lady said you can write on the sidewalk with them and it glows. so twisted.

STORY OF THE MALT

best story of the week. i just cut-and-pasted the one sis faulkner wrote. she's actually typing it right now and she's just randomly start laughing and set us both off again.[ok, this is gonna come in a follow-up email. unless the email forwarder cuts and pastes it cause i have to get on a new comp to send it].ok one more amazing thing to add: every time ppl entered the house she'd greet them with a super dramatic "that door you just walked in is the same door john taylor would walk in and out of many times a day..." you know, set the mood, whatever. then later this visitor had been asking me all about what parts of the house/woodwork were original and so i ask sis b and she said with a totally serious, unaware face "oh, all of it is. except the front door." WHAT? i was dying. it was amazing.

SLEEPOVER?

tomorrow night we're having a "unity activity" aka sleepover with the sisters. it'll be cool. we're gonna make muddy buddies and have marshmallow popcorn! but it'll definately be the first sleepover ever where i'm in bed by 10:30. i love all the rules, i really do. they all secretly mean blessings so it's cool. plus when else can i have a sleepover and go to bed at 10:30?ok, that's all we've got time for. love you all and the emails/letters. you're in my prayers. see you all in nauvoo sometime maybe...

Additional letter from Sister Faulkner:
On Wednesday I served at the John Taylor home and it was so fun! Sister Cartwright and I served there with Sister Bartles a senior sister. Within two hours of serving there Sister Bartles suggested that her husband make us all banana malts. It was pretty busy and so we thought the plans for a shake would not actually come through and we were both alright with that because Sister Cartwright can’t handle bananas and just Tuesday I had decided I was going to eat so healthy for the rest of my mission…right. Sister Cartwright had to leave to go on exchanges midday and so a few minutes before she started to pack up her things. Sister Bartles realized she was going and sprang up to the phone and demanded that her husband make a malt right then so we could enjoy it before Sister Cartwright left. Sister Cartwright and I were told to go and wait in the street for him until he came. No longer than 5 minutes later sweet old Elder Bartles pulls up three cups and a huge blender full of malt. Sister Bartles insists on taking all of the tours so that we can enjoy our malts. Between tours Sister Bartles came down and so we offered her a cup full of malt. She looks back and us and with such a serious expression she says, “Sister, sweets really upset my Fibromialgia!” At this point Sister Cartwright and I almost spit up our malts and begin to tear up laughing because we realize that that this whole blender is just for us. Sister Bartles gets all flustered that Elder Bartles didn’t bring spoons. She reaches into a large carpet bag and in true Mary Poppin’s fashion she triumphantly pulls out two plastic forks. She grabs my water bottle and swishes them in the water to clean them and then dries them with a Kleenex. Another tour came in right then and she again tells us to sit so we can finish the malt she denied. It has been 2 days and Sister Cartwright and I still can’t see a banana, plastic fork, or blender with out cracking up. This whole story took forever to type up and prep day time is precious but it just reminds us that life in Nauvoo is a beautiful thing.

hey everyone! 3 p-days in 2 weeks. what the? cool! WARNING: i get more than 30 min here so this one could get obnoxiously long. i went back and titled the paragraphs so ppl can read what they care about. :) but i also don't get another p-day til next, next fri so you'll probably miss me really bad by then.

MI COMPANARIA
so the best part of nauvoo so far is that guess what....I'M COMPANIONS WITH SISTER FAULKNER!!!! :) i keep thinking that it's maybe just temporary cause it's way too good. we get along seriously perfect. she's big into hurrying and doing things efficiently. she doesn't get worked up really at all and she's into having many communal things like clothes and food. also she makes sure all the plates get finished when we eat. i love my life!!! she's happy to work out for more than a half hour if we wake up early and there are plenty of girls here who run. for reals, everything about my mission is better than i thought it could be. oh, and a couple other things i love about her is that A. we talk constantly and B. she told me that on more than one occassion she's slept-walked into her companion's bed and slept the rest of the night there. what the? haha! i love it!

MY ACCOMODATIONS
but wait, there's more!! i live in a house with 7 (soon to be 9) other sisters. it's a rad, old-school house with skylights and brick arches and here's the raddest part....it's across the street from the temple. no exagerration. like directly across the street. like the only thing separating my bedroom window from the temple is a street and some grass. and it's such a stinkin gorgeous temple! so crazy to think that the old-school saints built it and it looked just as cool. i'm so excited for you all to come out here.

NAUVOO AT LARGE
nauvoo is beautiful, it's true. we're right on the mississippi and there's lillypads and yes, i already saw a firefly. SO COOL. it's so small-town though. i love it. just random, no-name places everywhere! and the heat and humidity have both been very mild so far as a nice little blessing to not traumatize us right off the bat. :)

MID-WESTERN LIFE
the mid-west as a whole...i have a bone to pick with it. i mean i knew they fried everything, but seriously. it's disgusting. KT asked me a while ago wouldn't it have been hard if i'd gone somewhere in asia and had to eat weird food and i dare say that would've been way more ok than someone feeding me a fried strawberry. i mean, it's just sad. no one should do that to a perfectly good strawberry. eesh. oh, and there's country music EVERYWHERE. two strikes. but i suppose there's enough to redeem this place. :)

MTC LEFTOVERS (not like tator tots. leftover stories)
oh, a couple leftover stories from the MTC. so a while back i was in an empty hallway waiting for my comp to get out of the bathroom when this elder came up from behind me and scared me. like 100% on purpose. i didn't even know him. what the heck?! so of course it's me and i leapt in the air like a freak show and he laughed and laughed all the way down the hall. what?! and then another elder walks around the corner a couple minutes later and scared me to death again, this time not on purpose (come to find out later he was trying to find me cause his comp had told him about him scaring me. make sense?) anyway, so then these elders proceed to see me multiple times at the MTC and just blantantly laugh and me and be like, "there's the jumping sister." what? it pretty much haunted me til the day i got on the bus.

THE COOL OLD PPL(i think i'm gonna throw up my strawberry...unrelated point.)
the senior missionaries here are precious and apparently all think they're your grandparents. so that's cool. my mission pres is way rad. very soft-spoken and has an awesome spirit about him.THE PLANE RIDEon the plane ride over i was able to sit next to a lady from OR and we talked adn talked the whole 3 hours. we were very similar, just 30 yrs apart. i told her a little more about the gospel (she knew a bit) and was able to bear my testimony to her on some things. it was a really good chat. then after i got off the plane a lady who'd overheard like the whole thing and was obviously LDS was like, "how was your first discussion, sis cartwright?" funny. you never know who's listening. the lady i talked to was way cool though. i wish i could've told her more.

AIRPORT JOY
sis soza's bro is serving in the mission that the airport's in so she was just watching out the window the whole drive just knowing he was somewhere right there. she has 2 bros, one older and one younger and they're both on missions too and all in the mid-west. bizarre since they all speak spanish. but we also got to meet her bro's mission pres and stuff and it was so cool to see her eyes light up when they made the connection. precious.

NOT FUNNY
sidenote: the MTC and i imagine the mission completely zap your sense of humors. like i worry that i'm gonna be really into puns (no offense, james...) i'll let you know how it goes but there are lots of ultra nerdy jokes said and they start getting funnier and funnier to me. like the other day at dinner in the MTC this one group of missionaries passes another and an elder yells out "hey look! it's the missionaries!!" not a pun, i realize, but a lame joke nontheless. and i totally couldn't stop laughing. so sad.

THE PEEPS HERE
i'll let you know more about the actual missionary work here when i've actually done more but i can tell i'm gonna learn a ton from my comp and the other sisters here. so many awesome girls, no joke. and so many cute clothes that get very traded around. :) we're working on making connections of ppl we know. so far, i've only had one. sis rasmussen is from highland and knows the scoresbys. her older sibs are hayley, jake, jarvis, etc. good times. if anyone told me anyone to look out for someone here tell me again cause i forgot.

I STILL LOVE MY LIFE
i'm stoked to be here. everyone i know should come. it's worth it, i promise. i can already tell and i haven't even been to any of the sites yet. oh, and i do get to wear period clothing at least once a week. i'll let you know how that treats me. pics to come, i'm sure. mostly we work in the main VC though. and we get to go to the temple every prep-day!

COMMUNICATION
i can only email parents on this (or like a mass forward) but everyone can feel free to email me here cause i can print them out if they're long and i want to read them later. i can also see attachments supposedly yet i'm having some technical troubs. but i'll still be a little slow in responding just cause, well, that's how it goes. or real mail's always rad too.

here's the addresses:

regular mail:

PO Box 215

Nauvoo, IL 62354

packages:

975 Young

Nauvoo, IL 62354

WRAP-UP

ah, that was a lot. thanks for reading and for your thoughts/prayers/letters/packages. none of it goes unappreciated. i'm so thankful for all of you and i say it in my prayers all the time. i can feel the extra help of the prayers from you all. i love it, love it, love it here and i'm so stoked to share the gospel with everyone i can. i have a lot to learn about being more bold and getting more done but i'll make good goals and work on it. i love you all. know that i know with all my heart that the church is true and if you have any doubts please take the time to read the Book of Mormon and to pray and to find out for yourself because Heavenly Father wants to bless you and to answer your prayers and questions. He wants to you to come closer to Him through understanding His gospel and by coming unto Christ through the atonement. There are many blessings to be found through learning, and then living, the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

love-sis cartwright (i'm totally legit now! :) )

p.s. sorry about the excessive smily faces. i know that offends some people.

so yeah...i'm leaving the MTC on tues. the 5th. so i guess all those fat packages that are on their way up to me will just have to be forwarded. :) it was very sudden. it all happened last tues within a couple of hours. i got moved out of my district and from my comp. i'm in a threesome with sis. lancaster (the other ASL miss.) and sis. soza. they're both going to nauvoo so we're doing the VC training all together this week. it's a little lonley though cause the way it timed out we're the only three in the class so we learn by ourselves, eat by ourselves, have gym by ourselves....and to think, i was just getting good at volleyball. :) so i do miss my comp and my district but i have class right upstairs so i try to see them a couple times a day if i can and i still sleep in the same room with all my home-sisters. :)what else? OH!!!! this story is LONG overdue but i keep forgetting to tell it...so a while ago sis white and i were having one of our many chats trying to ease our communication problems. and i don't know if i mentioned this but she'd ask me throughout the day many times if i was mad at her. pretty much after everything i said. i explained to her often that i really don't get mad very easily and that if i am i'll tell her. but i was so confused why i always came across as mad...any guesses?? that's right! the ANGRY-CONFUSED face!!! how could i have been so blind! it was so obvious but it took me DAYS to figure out. so i just laughed as soon as i realized and we had a chat about it and she was like, "yeah! that's the face! you do it all the time!!" and it's cause she really does confuse me a good amt of the time. haha! oh, too bad. i for reals almost lost a comp over it. :) but we worked it out and by the very next day she said i was getting lots better. i for reals even prayed that i'd stop making the face. ah, good times.what else? i have a hideous blister/welt thing on the back of my foot. it's totally rockin. and with the blackish marks that your show permanently leaves on your foot it makes it look even more hard-core. awesome.the biggest challenge is still to feel tired at 10:30 at night. lots of laying in bed completely wired at the end of the day. but i'm working on it. i still fall asleep faster than i otherwise would cause i for reals pray for it. i know, i'm a freak.the new comps are awesome. we all have the same work ethic and they're both very laid-back so it works out well. i'm sad to leave the disctrict tues but the elders were leaving then anyway so at least i get to carpool with them on the way to the airport. they're all going to the phoenix mission. precious.today is an extra p-day (hence the email). i don;'t know when my next one will be.what else? i've found lots of ppl who know sis salisbury or sis pinkal. there's an elder here who was here when sis p was and she taught him some lessons it russian. warms my heart.thanks for all the emails/letter this week everyone. it was so, so good to hear how everyone is doing and what's going on. even if some of the letters invovled creepy fairy stickers (which, yes, is exactly what i called them out loud before i read that was exactly what you wrote. ha!)i'm excited to go to nauvoo. our VC teacher explained to us that there are about 50,000+ missionaries right now. only 6-7000 are sisters. only 400 get called VC and 200 of those are temple square. only 18 go to nauvoo and we also learned that only 4 of us are or have ever done ASL there. yep. we're the very first batch of ASL missionaries in nauvoo. no pressure. the mission pres is stoked to get us out there though.a man from church headquarters came down to answer a lot of our Qs aoubt nauvoo and stuff. very informative. mom, don't worry. he said the wal-mart's only like 15 min away and they let us go even though it's outside the boundaires. we stay in little houses/apts, not all together like i thought. if you're in carthage you're there for a whole transfer and they don't always send the sisters all away for the winter. so only time will tell.some funny MTC moments: we had the hottest mtg ever last week. super stuffy and stuff. afterwards sis white said she was pretty sure her nylons had sweated to her butt. don't know why that was so funny to me but it was. mostly cause when she's jkoking like that she doesn't even seem to realize it and says it dead serious. and then in a prayer and elder was trying to mention another elder in it cause he injured his finger in the intense v-ball game adn he said "...and please be with elder lundgreen's finger..." awesome. sorry about all my funny prayer stories if it seems a little sac-religous but after saying about 20 prayers/day you're bound to have some. :)oh and last night i was thinking things in my head then i walked into my room wheere the other sisters were and just mumbled and stopped and sis h said, "ok, you just walked into the room and said 'ish'!" haha! little does she know how significant that word can be.saw someone i knew again at the temple today. (jaylyn, for all my p-town friends). a teacher here recogizned me from the testing center. that's awkward. haha!mostly things are still way good. i know i've only seen the tip of the iceburg so far but i'm so excited to go do this work. i'm so excited to share the truth of the gospel. i often forget there's ppl who really don't understand or know the truths that i do. even as simple as Heavenly Father's love for them. and then to be able to share with someone that there is a living prophet on the earth today and that Christ's church was restored through Joseph Smith and that the Book of Mormon is truly written by ancient prophets. it's a bold msg but i know it's true. i've prayed all my life about it and still here at the MTC and everytime i just know stronger and stronger that it's true and that coming to Christ and keeping the commandments will help us find the answers we need. i'm grateful for that and for His Atonement and the great strength that's been to me. i'm so, so thankful to be able to let others hear that and feel that.thanks for reading, those of you who have like a good 15 min to spend on my emails each week. :) sorry they're so long but what can ya do? it's hard to summarize this experience quickly.oh, and i feel like i still hang out with a lot of you. my dreams still mostly happen with stuff and ppl from before. i'm not usually on a mission in my dreams. so i've got quite a few memories of everyone just since being here. :) haha.ok, love you all!-sis C